Abstract
For millennia, libraries have adopted and adapted information technologies for the cultivation of human attention and agency. These include automated information processing technologies, which libraries have been integrating into library resources, services, systems, and spaces for decades. Libraries have also developed related information practices that empower people to discover, create, and share information with these information systems reflectively and responsibly. This presentation briefly explores the history and meaning of the library, from antiquity through recent advances in automation, and introduces a framework for conceptualizing and guiding the design of virtuous human information practices. It suggests how this framework may be applied as new human information practices are designed alongside new automated information processes, including new forms of artificial intelligence. By integrating AI into new information processes and practices with intention and care, libraries can continue to cultivate human agency in ways that enable people to comprehend, critique, and collaborate with AI to imagine and create a better information environment.